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| August, 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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President's Report
Don Bodnar
Join us in Dayton for the 2010 Regional Event
Exhibitors - Reserve your tabletop space now by contacting Jan Kendall The OUTSTANDING Technical Program Includes:
PRIVATE AMTA dinner event at the National Museum of the United States Air Force! Monday, August 23, 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm with a special guest speaker. Join us for this unique evening! Tickets are only $50. We need a minimum of 85 reservations for this event or it will be cancelled. Please purchase your ticket NOW if you wish to attend! For complete information visit www.amta.org or contact Janet O’Neil, AMTA Meeting Advisor, at janet.oneil@ets-lindgren.com, phone 425-868-2558.
AMTA 2010 - Atlanta! AMTA 2010 is just around the corner! Please join us in Atlanta, Georgia from October 10 – 15 for the 32nd Annual Symposium. As always, we will have an excellent technical program, an educational short course, an informative technical tour and a range of industry exhibitors. Highlights of the week’s schedule include:
Online registration is now open via http://www.amta2010.org, so register today in order to take advantage of early registration discounts, which end on August 29!
AMTA Awards Committee Report As the chair of the Awards Committee, I’m pleased to announce the award winners for 2010. All of the awards will be given at the AMTA 2010 Symposium in Atlanta during the Wednesday night banquet.
promoted the goals and objectives of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association. The AMTA hereby cites Michael H. Francis:
Also, Outstanding Service awards will go to the outgoing members of the AMTA 2009 Board of Directors. Those three individuals are:
AMTA greatly appreciates their service to the organization as part of the Board of Directors in 2009 and their continued service in future years. Finally, the Awards Committee selected three Fellows and eight Senior Members. The three Fellow recipients are:
The eight Senior Member recipients are:
My gratitude goes to the Awards Committee, comprised of Don Bodnar, Ed Joy, Jeff Kemp, Shantnu Mishra, Daniël Janse van Rensburg, Steve Schneider, and Jeff Way. Also as Past-President, I serve as the Chair of the Nominating Committee. The three AMTA Board of Director candidates for 2010 are (in alphabetical order):
My thanks go to the Nomination Committee, comprised of John Aubin, Don Bodnar, Lars Foged, Mike Francis, Jeff Kemp, and Daniël Janse van Rensburg. Looking forward to seeing you in Atlanta! Jeff Guerrieri
AMTA Senior Advisor's Report Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements This year the Conference on Electromagnetic Measurements (CPEM) met in Daejeon, South Korea from June 14-18. This conference meets every two years, alternating between North America and other places in the world. The attendees come from many places in the world, especially from the national measurement institutes (NMIs). Examples of NMIs include the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US and the Korean Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) in Korea. KRISS was this year’s host. The topics cover many aspects of electromagnetic measurements. Some examples include fundamental constants, atomic clocks, standards for the Smartgrid, RF measurements, and antenna measurements. One interesting bit of research that is going on are the efforts to relate the kilogram to Planck’s constant (the so-called electronic kilogram). The RF measurement sessions did not get underway until Wednesday. This year, for the first time, AMTA had a special session (on Wednesday afternoon) at CPEM. There were five papers (20 minutes each for the presentation), plus two invited tutorials (of 50 minutes each). The program was as follows:
There were over 40 participants in the session. As you can see above, the papers came from several countries in the Pacific rim. I cannot say enough about Korean hospitality. Dinner was arranged every night. On Sunday, the day before the conference, our host arranged an outing to one of Korea’s national parks (see Figs. 1 and 2). The park had some hiking trails and a Buddhist monastery. On Tuesday, arrangements were made to visit two organizations in Incheon that had EM measurement facilities. Among other things, we saw a tapered chamber, compact range and RFID test facility. Incheon is about two and a half hours from Daejeon. On our return to Daejeon, we visited a Korean folk village. This village was reconstructed to resemble a typical village of the 700s (see Fig. 3, courtesy of Jin-Seob Kang) The conference concluded with a tour of the KRISS facilities and a barbecue hosted by KRISS. Many thanks to our Korean hosts for make our stay a pleasant one! Micheal Francis
The Vice President’s Report
I hope you are planning on attending AMTA 2010 in Atlanta from October 10th through the 15th. Don’t forget to sign up for the Sunday Short Course. This year we are offering “Material Measurement Techniques” with Dr. Michael Havrilla of the Air Force Institute of Technology, Dr. Lydell Frasch of the Boeing Company, and Dr. Keith Whites of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Course topics include:
Details can be found at http://www.amta2010.org. Click on the Sunday Short Course on the left hand side. There will also be more information in the preliminary meeting brochure, which should be in your mailbox when you get this newsletter. You do have to register for the Meeting to attend! For 2011 in Denver, we are offering Diagnosis of Antenna and Scattering Measurements and Far-Field Test Ranges with Dr. Inder “Jiti” Gupta and Dr. Teh-Hong Lee of The Ohio State University. Topics include:
Finally, for 2012 in Seattle, we have been promised a short course by Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii! I don’t have a topic yet, but you can be sure this course will be interesting and very entertaining! We are looking for folks to teach short courses in 2013 and 2014. If you have a topic you would like to present, send me an email or look me up in Atlanta! AMTA Advertising I look forward to seeing all of you in Atlanta this October! Ed Urbanik
The Return of Heirloom Produce
Heirlooms are making their way back in popularity. What’s the lure? These specialty foods simply offer a rich diversity of nature’s best. Heirlooms are full of surprises—a tempting array of intricate textures, appetizing colors, exotic shapes, and exceptional flavors. With such a reservoir of genetic diversity, heirlooms often have high nutritional values. For instance heirloom corn is a protein powerhouse with some containing 70 percent more protein than today’s hybrid corn. Distinctive colors also contribute to many heirlooms’ nutritional richness. The pigments in red colored Chantenay or Punjabi carrots, for example, contain cancer – fighting phy-tochemicals such as lycopene. What’s more, amino acids in heirlooms cucumbers, peas, and tomatoes often surpass hybrid varieties. You are not likely to find heirloom produce at your local grocery store. But you can find these specialty all stars at farmers markets, roadside stands and specialty stores. Or try your hand at growing heirlooms in your backyard garden. Heirlooms are experiencing a renaissance, and the reason simply boils down to a heritage of flavor. Discover for yourself how heirlooms may just be the “missing ingredient” in your recipes. Examples of Tasty Heirlooms Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans: Timeless favorite from 1864 with great old time flavor Enjoy some of these heirlooms with your next cookout, it could be exciting! Lawrence L. Mandeville
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AMTA is currently working with the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) to develop a standard on near-field measurements. [This is not the first time AMTA has worked with AP-S. Several years ago we worked with them on a RCS measurement standards.] The Near-Field Working Group consists of approximately 25 persons. All of the members of the working group are AMTA members and most are also IEEE members. We have been working for several years on the near-field standard. A draft is expected to be ready for the working group to vote on at its next meeting, which will occur during this fall’s AMTA Symposium. Many of the members of the working group have contributed by writing sections of the document, which is currently about 100 pages. If the working group approves the document, it will be forwarded first to the Antenna Standards Committee and then the IEEE Standards Association for their approval. If you are interested, the Near-Field Working Group will meet Tuesday October 12 (during the fall AMTA Symposium) from 5 – 6 pm in TBD room at the Westin Peachtree Hotel. 
Many thanks to the authors who have submitted their papers and to the technical committee volunteers for all their efforts to date helping me assemble a very good technical program. That said, we have approximately 85 papers that have been successfully released and submitted, even though the number of abstracts was significantly higher (over 110). An apparent trend that authors will want to pay close attention to is the increasing amount of time required by many organizations to move through the public release process. In some cases, public release took from two weeks up to a month, and caused several papers to miss the publication deadline. A strong technical program is a critical component of AMTA, and a full set of quality publications is key to that. Please do not underestimate the need to complete papers at least one month before the deadline to allow for timely public release. 
The fiscal year is rapidly coming to a close and I am happy to report that both AMTA and I are in a much happier place regarding our financial outlook. We have all been working very hard to keep expenses at a minimum (much thanks to my fellow board members who have endured my constant brow beatings). 
The AMTA Board of Directors holds monthly telephone meetings and has very frequent e-mail exchanges to keep AMTA business flowing. For example, the Board is applying for a revised tax filing status in order to reduce certain expenses associated with our annual symposium. Janet O’Neil and local IEEE chapters are organizing a one-day regional antenna measurements meeting in Dayton, Ohio. Thanks to Lars Foged for organizing antenna measurement sessions at EuCAP in Barcelona, Spain and at ANTEM in Ottawa, Canada. Bids have been received for creating a new AMTA web site and work should begin on it shortly. Time is getting close for AMTA 2010 which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia October 10-15. Be sure to register for this event. See you in Atlanta!
Monday Night Outing at the US Air Force Museum on August 23 - $50 for tickets 
Monday Night Outing: Tour the Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world, at your own pace; wander through relaxing tropical wave pools, cool off at the Cold Water Quest, and watch sharks swim overhead – in fact, it’s one of the only places in the world where you can see captive whale sharks. Afterward, head across the street for dinner at the Ventanas Rooftop Restaurant where floor-to-ceiling windows provide amazing views of downtown and mid-town Atlanta. Plan to spend a few minutes taking advantage of Atlanta’s beautiful fall weather out on the rooftop patio after you eat.
Friday Technical Tour: Enjoy a tour of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s downtown campus. Stops will include visits to the labs at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC), the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, and the Signature Technology Laboratory. The tour is open to all AMTA attendees and lunch is provided. 
I wish all three of them well and ask you to attend the Tuesday, October 12, Business Lunch to hear the candidates and cast your vote. Being a volunteer organization, AMTA's strength is based on the commitment level of the membership and the Board of Directors. 
AMTA Short Courses
There was a time when cherished antiques were not the only things handed down through generations. So was the food on the table, until American agriculture began replacing its heirloom fruits and vegetables with hybrids built to handle machine harvesting shipping and shelf time at local supermarkets. 
Romanesco Broccoli: A masterpiece for both eye and palette, with spiraling apple green heads and a slightly sweet and nutty flavor. Please click here to be removed from the AMTA Newsletter distribution list. The AMTA Newsletter is edited by Lawrence L. Mandeville and is prepared and distributed by Milestone Marketing, Inc. 241 Shyrewood Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043. |